by Pu Songling
Glancing to see that no one else was around, Xie grabbed the woman from the side, then reached for her wrist, and dragged her into a deep, secluded valley, with the intention of raping her. The woman angrily yelled, “Where are you from, you brigand, that you come here and violently lay hands on me!” Xie pulled her along,without stopping.
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Longmen: Modern Hejin county, in Shanxi province.
As she was being forced this way, the woman stumbled and fell, distressed that she didn’t know of anything she could do to stop him, and then she said, “Won’t you please be gentle, rather than doing this? Release me, and then we can do as you wish.” So Xie did as she asked.
Together they entered the peaceful valley, where they made love out in the open, and when they were finished, Xie felt contented and in love. The woman asked Xie his name and where he lived, and he answered her truthfully. He asked her the same questions, and she replied, “I’m from the Li clan. Unfortunately, I became a widow while still quite young; then my mother-in-law also passed away, leaving me alone with no one to depend upon, and so I often return to my mother’s house.”
“I’m a widower,” Xie told her, “so why don’t we get married?”
Li replied, “You have children, don’t you?”
“That’s true,” he said, “and I’m not going to deceive you: when it comes to the matter of sex, there’s no shortage of women who want to be intimate with me. But then the boys start crying and the girl sobbing, and the women can’t bear it.”
Li hesitated, then exclaimed, “That is a real dilemma! Looking at your clothes, your socks, and your shoes, which are rather mediocre in appearance, I’d say that I could make similar items myself. Still, it’s tough being a stepmother, and I’m afraid I couldn’t face other people’s criticism.”
Xie told her, “Please don’t let these doubts stop you. If I don’t mention it, what could anyone else have to do with it?”
Li seemed to feel a bit more receptive to the idea. She turned away and thought it over, then said, “Since we’ve already been intimate together, we might as well join together. But my deceased husband’s overbearing brother always thinks of me as some kind of commodity that will bring a high price, and I’m afraid he won’t permit us to marry, so what can we do?”
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The Li Clan: The Chinese character for the surname “Li” is also sometimes used to signify “black,” or “dark,” hinting at the dire act she will pursue against Xie.
Xie also became apprehensive, and implored her to run away with him. Li replied, “I’ve been considering just that. But I was thinking that if your family members spread the word that we’ve done this, it’ll be bad for the two of us.”
“This is a minor matter,” Xie told her. “There’s only an old woman at home with the children, so I’ll send her away immediately.” This pleased Li, since it would secure their common goal. Li hid outside the house; Xie went in and took care of sending the old woman away, then straightened things up and welcomed in Li, feeling extremely pleased about how things had turned out.
Li took care of all the housework while also looking after the children, mending their clothes, proving to be hardworking and diligent in all things. Xie came to cherish and love Li with unusual devotion, and every day he would lock his door so he could be together with her, hence preventing visitors from entering.
After more than a month, Xie finally had to go out and conduct some business, so he secured the door and left. When he returned home, he found the door still shut tightly, and nobody answered when he knocked. He unlocked it and entered, but found no sign of anyone within.
Then just as he came to the bedroom, an enormous wolf leapt out through the doorway, almost frightening Xie to death. When he entered the room and looked around, his children were gone, but in a large pool of blood on the floor lay their three heads. He turned around to pursue the wolf, but by then it had already vanished.
The collector of these strange tales remarks, “Xie acted immorally, and in consequence he suffered for it. He married again, but in doing so he led a wolf into his home—but how could he expect her to be a woman of good morals, after having forced her to have sex with him, and then having begged her to run away with him and be his wife!”
198. Third Lady Lotus
In Huzhou there lived a scholar named Zong Xiangruo. One autumn day he went to make an inspection of the crops in the field, when he saw that some of the grains growing densely there were shaking and waving excessively. Suspicious, upon taking the path between fields in order to observe more closely, he discovered a man and woman making love. He laughed and turned to start back.
He watched as the embarrassed man retied the belt of his robe and hastily scurried away. The woman also stood up. When Zong looked her over carefully, he could see that she was extremely beautiful. He found her attractive and wanted to become intimate with her, too, but considered it shameful and vulgar to do so out in the open.
Then he came a bit closer to her as she was brushing herself off and said, “Is it enjoyable to make love like that?” The woman laughed, but didn’t answer.
Zong came even closer and opened up her robe, revealing her skin to be smooth and slick, as though oil-coated. Consequently, he began running his hands up and down, all over her body, till the woman laughed and said, “You perverted xiucai! What’s with all the crazy groping—if you’ve got something on your mind, why not just do it?” He inquired about her surname. “After we’ve made love,” she said, “we’ll head off in different directions, so why bother finding out about each other? Or are you asking my name so you can erect a monument to my chastity?”
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Huzhou: A prefecture located in modern Zhejiang province’s Wuxing county.
Xiucai: A successful candidate in the county level imperial civil service examination. It’s like calling Zong a “nerd,” or a naïf.
“Doing it out there in the fields, where the crops are all wet with dew, is the way of some mountain village pig farmer,” replied Zong, “and I won’t be part of it. Since a beauty like you should treat even a private tryst quite seriously, how can you so easily settle for something like this?” When the woman heard his words, she accepted his advice appreciatively. Zong then told her, “My modest home isn’t far from here, so please join me and we’ll go there.”
“I’ve already been outside a long time,” she replied, “and I’m afraid that people might become suspicious about my absence, so I’ll come to you at midnight.” She asked Zong about the details of his home’s gates and doors until she had them all in mind, then she hurried away up the path.
Right at midnight, she arrived at Zong’s study. They made love with frenzied joy, and grew very close to each other. This continued for over a month, and no one knew about their intimacy.
Then a Lamaist monk came to the monk’s residence in the village temple, and when he caught sight of Zong he was so shocked that he told him, “Your body has an evil influence pervading it—what have you run into?”
“Nothing,” replied Zong.
Several days went by, and then, without warning, he fell ill. The woman brought him delicious confections and solicitously took care of him, comforting him and inquiring about his needs like a devoted wife. But every time she got into bed with him, she’d insist that they make love.
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A monument to my chastity: The woman is making reference to the zhenjiepaifang, a traditional stone arch the government would erect to honor a chaste woman who’d been widowed while still young.
Lamaist monk: Lamaism combines aspects of Tantric Buddhism with the Tibetan Bon religion, “which practices shamanism, exorcism rituals and the worship of various beneficent and harmful deities” (Perkins 264).
As Zong’s health declined, he found himself unable to comply with her desires. He suspected that she wasn’t really human, but he als
o couldn’t resist her sexual allure long enough to drive her from his bed. Hence he told her, “Several days ago, a Buddhist monk told me that I was being harmed by an evil spirit, and now as a result I’m sick, verifying his words. Tomorrow I want to request that he come here, so I can ask him for a protective charm.” The woman’s expression turned to sadness. Zong became even more suspicious as a result.
The next day, he sent a servant to solicit the monk’s help and to tell him about Zong’s illness. The monk replied, “This is a fox’s doing. Her ability is still superficial, so it should be easy to trap her.” Then he took two strips with magical figures written on them, handed them to the servant with the instructions, “Go home and take out a clean jar, put it in front of the bed, and stick one of the talisman strips over its mouth. Wait for the fox to run into the jar, cover it with a basin, and then stick the other talisman strip on the basin, set it all into a cauldron of boiling water until the heat cooks it, and in a short while it’ll be dead.” The servant returned and did everything as the monk had instructed.
Late that night, when the woman arrived, she took out some kumquats that she’d brought inside her sleeve, and was just about to approach Zong’s bed, to ask how he was feeling. Suddenly the mouth of the jar began whistling with a sound like the wind, and the woman was lured inside it. The servant quickly sprang up, covered the mouth of the jar with the basin, and attached the other talisman strip, then prepared to put it in the cauldron.
Zong saw the kumquats scattered all over the floor, recalled the woman’s affection towards him, and felt moved to pity her, so he hastily ordered the servant to stop. When the talisman and the basin were removed, the woman leapt out of the jar, disoriented, and kowtowed to Zong, saying, “In no time at all, this great power almost succeeded in reducing me to dust! You’re a compassionate man, and I pledge myself to help you recover.” Then she left.
After several days, Zong’s illness became even more grave, and seemed likely to prove fatal. A servant hurried to the marketplace, in order to purchase a coffin. Along the way, he ran into a girl who asked him, “Are you a servant for Zong Xiangruo?”
“I am,” he replied.
The girl told him, “Master Zong is a first cousin of mine. I heard he was very seriously ill, and I was just about to pay him a visit, but something’s come up, so I can’t leave just now. I have some special medicine for him to apply, so I’ll entrust you to take it to him.” The servant accepted the medicine and returned home.
Zong knew that his first cousin didn’t have any sisters, so it had to be the fox that his servant had met. After taking the medicine, his condition was greatly improved, and in ten days he’d completely recovered his health. Zong appreciated the fox’s kindness, and he prayed to the heavens that he might be granted his wish to meet her again.
One night, he’d shut his door and was drinking by himself when suddenly he heard a knock at the window. When he pulled it open and looked out, the fox woman was there. Overjoyed, he took her hand, thanked her for coming, and asked her to stay and drink with him.
“Since we parted, I’ve remained loyal to you,” she said, “thinking only of how to repay your great kindness. Now I’ve found you a good wife, one you can depend upon to perform her duties faithfully, so how’s that?”
Zong asked, “Who is she?”
“She isn’t someone you know,” replied the fox woman. “Tomorrow morning between 7:00 and 9:00, travel to the lake south of here, where you’ll see some girls picking water chestnuts; there’ll be one who’s wearing a crinkly gauze cape the color of ice, so you should immediately pursue her with your boat. If you lose track of her as you go, look along the side of the dike till you find a short-stalked lotus flower hidden among the foliage; pick it, and take it home, then burn it in the flame of a candle, and you’ll obtain a beautiful wife as well as a long life.” Zong paid careful attention to her instructions.
As she subsequently prepared to go, Zong tried to stop her from leaving. “Since I experienced the near disaster,” she told him, “I’ve suddenly been made aware that there are greater powers operating in the world. Why then would I allow myself to become hated just because of a love affair?” With a stern countenance, she said goodbye and departed.
Zong did as she’d said, and when he arrived at the lake to the south, he saw quite a few pretty women working amidst the plants. Among them was a girl wearing an ice-colored cape, a peerless beauty. He urged his boat towards her, but all of sudden lost track of where she’d gone.
He began poking through the multitude of lotus plants until he found a single red lotus flower that was no more than a chi in size, so he plucked it and took it home. Once he got inside, he placed it on a table, then trimmed a candle, and was just about to light it.
When he turned back to the flower, he saw that it had been transformed into a pretty girl. Zong was pleasantly surprised and humbly prostrated himself to show his gratitude. “Foolish scholar!” said the girl. “I’m a fox spirit, here to do mischief to you!” Zong refused to listen to her. “Who told you what to do?” the girl asked him.
He replied, “I was able to pick you out all by myself, so why would I need any instructions?” He grabbed her arm to pull her to him, but when he took her hand, she changed into a bizarrely-shaped rock about a chi tall, intricately detailed on all sides. He carried it over to a table, and then burnt incense sacrifices to it while bowing submissively and speaking blessings.
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Chi: A measure equal to 1/3 meter.
When night fell, he closed his doors and blocked all the exits, afraid that she might try to escape. At daybreak, he examined the weird stone and found to his surprise that it had turned into a gauze cape, scented with a delicate fragrance; as he spread it over his shoulders and tied it around his neck, it felt like something alive and intimate. Zong pulled a large quilt over himself and went to bed.
At sunset he rose to turn up the wick of his lamp, and upon returning he discovered the girl lying beside his pillow. Happy once more, but afraid that she might change again, he somberly invoked blessings in hopes of getting to make love with her. The girl smirked and exclaimed, “It must be karmic retribution! I don’t know what crazy individual has been teaching you this wild behavior!” Then she stopped resisting him.
But while they were making love, Zong proved clumsy and incompetent, so the girl repeatedly begged him to stop. Zong wouldn’t hear of it. Then she told him, “If that’s the way it is, I’ll just change and leave!” This frightened Zong into stopping.
From this point, the couple lived together harmoniously. And they often seemed to be quite wealthy, although no one knew the source of their surplus. The girl became silent whenever she saw other people, as though her mouth was unable to form words; Zong, too, avoided speaking about her strange origin.
She became pregnant after ten months had passed, and calculated the day on which she should give birth. When the time arrived, she took control of the matter, advising Zong to shut all of his doors to prevent any visitors. Then she took a knife and made a cut just below her navel, out of which she drew an infant son, and ordered Zong to bind the wound with strips of silk; after a night had passed, she was fully healed.
Six or seven years later, she told Zong, “My debt from a previous life has been fulfilled, so now it’s time for me to bid you farewell.”
“When you first came home with me,” Zong said tearfully, “I was poverty-stricken, unable to stand on my own feet, but we became wealthy because of you, so how can I bear for you to say you suddenly have to leave? Besides, you have no other family home, and someday your son won’t know who his mother is—a regrettable business indeed.”
The girl was also disappointed and upset as she replied, “What has been gathered together must eventually become scattered—that’s only normal. Our son will experience good fortune and you’ll live to be a hundred, so why try to find fault with it? My clan is called He. If you find yourself thinking abou
t me, just take some of my old things into your arms and call out, ‘Third Lady Lotus!’ Then you’ll be able to see me.”
When she finished these words, she freed herself from Zong’s embrace and said, “I’m leaving now.” Shaken, he watched as she began to float up in the air until she was almost as high as his head. Zong jumped up, desperately wanting to pull her down, and managed to grab a shoe.
The shoe came off and fell to the ground, where it changed into a swallow made of stone; it was a deep crimson color, and translucent inside and out, as though filled with perfectly clear water. He picked it up and hid it away.
When he was inspecting the contents of their chests, he discovered that the ice-colored cape that the girl had worn still existed. Whenever he was feeling nostalgic, he would hold it in his arms and cry out for “Third Lady,” who would then appear to him vividly, happily smiling, looking just as he remembered her; but she never spoke to him.
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My clan is called He: A homonym, since the surname and the character for “lotus” have the same second-tone pronunciation.
199. The Cursed Duck
In the western part of our county, in a village where the people belonged to the same Bai clan, a certain fellow stole a duck from his neighbor, cooked and ate it. That night, he felt his skin begin to itch. At daybreak, when he took a closer look, he found duck feathers growing out of his skin that hurt when he touched them. He was horrified, and no medicine he tried could help it.
That night he had a dream, in which a man came to him and said, “You’re being afflicted because heaven is punishing you. You must have the curse lifted by the person you stole from, and then the duck feathers can fall out.”
The elderly neighbor from whom the fellow had stolen the duck was by nature a forgiving man; he’d never before put a curse on anyone for stealing his belongings. The thief cunningly told the old man, “Someone stole your duck from you. That person is undoubtedly afraid of being cursed, so if you curse him, you’ll warn him against coming again.”